Once you have signed up, create storage accounts for any geographic regions you would like to upload and deploy virtual machines on. You need to create at least one storage account to upload your images into.

Now that you have your account created, head over to your account page on Studio, and switch to the Linked Accounts tab. One of the coolest features of your new Windows Azure account is that you don't need to fill out a complex form: just download your settings file and upload it into Studio - we'll validate your settings and connect to your storage account in one click.

Deploying SUSE Studio images to Windows Azure

Once you have your account set up, you are ready to build some images. Windows Azure supports openSUSE 12.1, 64-bit and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2, 64-bit. Customize your appliance as you wish, but be sure to set the Disk size on the Configuration/Appliance tab, as this will determine the total size of disk allocated to your machine.

So lets build it already! Head over to the Build tab, and select the Azure format. We're not enabling testdrive on the Azure format, so be sure to build a disk image if you'd like to testdrive your appliance before uploading it. Once you're happy with your build, click on Upload to get the ball rolling.

Uploads go pretty quickly, so hang around for a minute or two, and we'll keep you updated on the progress. When your upload is complete, we'll show you the name of your brand new Windows Azure image. The upload page has a few short instructions to help you start your first virtual machine based on the uploaded image, via the management portal.

We have a video that will walk you through the process in two minutes:

Now, go have a lot of fun building in the cloud, or clouds, of your choice!